Mobility highlighted at ESU Stakeholders’ Forum

“We need to improve not only the number of students going abroad, but also the quality of the education”, says Erasmus Student Network President Marketa Tokova. She was one of the higher education experts present at the Stakeholders’ Forum organised by ESU on Monday this week.

Increased student mobility is one of ESU’s priorities for the next decade of the Bologna Process, and also the European education ministers and the European Commission support ESU’s goal for student mobility: by 2020, 20 per cent of all students should have had a stay abroad. Tokova warned againt prioritising mobility opportunities for only second and third cycle students and not for the first cycle (Bachelor) students, since this approach would make the mobility goal difficult to reach and deprive a large category of students that don’t advance to the second and third cycle of the mobility experience with all its benefits: personal growth, diversifying the academic views, improving social networking, increased employability.

Other central topics were student-centred learning and the social dimension of higher education. Among the institutions and organisations present were the European Commission, the European University Association, Education International, Eurostudent, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the European Youth Forum and the European Research Council.

“We are very glad to receive constructive criticism, and this Forum showed that there seems to be a general agreement on the current non-satisfactory implementation status of the Bologna Process. But not all of us have the same solutions to the challenges and problems of the reforms”, says ESU Chairperson Ligia Deca.

The aim of the Forum was to discuss the 2009 findings of ESU’s Bologna With Student Eyes report, which presents the students’ perspective on the implementation of the Bologna Process reform of European higher education. The event was part of the EU-sponsored project “Enhancing the Student Contribution to the Bologna Implementation” (ESCBI).

Click here to download presentation from the forum:

Love Hansson (ESU)